Area of Expertise: Business development

Álvaro Fernaández, named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, is a Brain Health expert, speaker, and writer. For over 15 years, he’s led SharpBrains, a research group studying how brains work in everyday life, bringing together lots of scientists, experts, and tech folks. He’s been mentioned in big newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Álvaro writes important reports about Brain Health and Innovation and has written papers on helping everyone’s mental health using new technologies. He’s written cool books like The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness, translated into many languages.

Before he became deeply involved in brain-related projects, Álvaro was busy helping start online bookstores and launching learning platforms. Additionally, he joined councils and groups that aimed to make the world a better place.

Álvaro Fernández went to Stanford University and got a BA in Economics from a university in Spain.

He loves skiing, tennis, reading non-fiction, and exploring new places. After living in the US for a long time, he and his family moved back to Spain. He’s from Bilbao and speaks Spanish and English fluently.

​Erika Reyes Loubet boasts nearly two decades of experience in strategic and organizational consulting, as well as in leadership and cultural transformation. Her focus lies in aligning team efforts towards achieving strategy through structures and initiatives tailored to the organization’s purpose.

With a background in Industrial Engineering from Tec de Monterrey and a Master’s in Education, she has specialized in leadership, coaching, and specific interventions, applying her expertise to developing competencies in teams across various companies.​

From her early days in Quality Management Systems implementation, Erika has honed her skills in strategic execution and alignment with human capital. She has contributed to opening new markets for consulting firms, including her own, leading intervention programs with large and medium-sized corporate clients. Additionally, she founded and developed Groware Consulting, a boutique firm offering comprehensive solutions for sustainable growth of SMEs, focusing on corporate governance frameworks, process optimization, and digital transformation.​

As a lecturer at ITESM and Tec Milenio, Erika enjoys her time in the classroom, teaching subjects like Mathematics with creativity and passion, fostering logical and creative development in problem-solving. She believes in shared learning and direct engagement with people to achieve meaningful changes in organizations.​

Based in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Erika resides with her two children, her most cherished life projects. Passionate about outdoor exercise, she finds in road cycling and running a way to build motivation, strength, and resilience, both mentally and physically. Moreover, she finds solace in painting and drawing, where she can explore less linear and structured thoughts.

Extensive experience leading negotiations to form partnerships with global companies in various countries such as the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Belgium, and Russia. Negotiation of long-term sales contracts with international companies.

Management and leadership of cultural transformation and change processes in multinational companies. Design and implementation of strategies and action plans to improve the results of companies in a situation of operational and financial crisis. Successful development and implementation of investment projects.

Profound skills in managing a wide variety of leadership, innovation, and expansion situations successfully.  Skillful experience in change management structure and leading processes across borders and cultures. 

Effective application of innovation and modernization procedures focused on operational functionality across regions.

With +30 years IT sector experience, Paloma has developed most of her career around sales and operations, joining Xerox Spain as a saleswoman, working in a wide range of sales senior positions including Director of Xerox Large Accounts, Distribution Channels and Outsourcing & Services organizations, acquiring an extensive operational and business transformation experience. She also held the Human Resources Director position, which gave her a broad vision of an organization and reinforced her focus on people as the key company asset.

During her last 10 years @Xerox, she was the President & General Manager for Spain, Iberia President and Southern Europe President, managing multicultural teams in complex business environments. As top executive of a market leader inside a sector undergoing a profound transformation, she led a complete digital, business model and cultural company turnaround and personally experienced how a high-performing culture and employee engagement drive success with clients and ultimately, brand and reputation.

Paloma holds extensive board experience in both corporate and non-profit organizations, being a non-executive board member of the Spanish insurance company Mutua Pelayo, and member of PROA Advisory Council (communication consulting and reputation management company) and CEG (Spanish management excellence club).

Paloma holds a degree in Information Sciences from the Madrid Complutense University, she is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and has participated in several leadership and executive development programs at Insead Executive Education, UK High-Performance Center Development and US Centre for Creative Leadership.

Based in Madrid, Paloma is married and mother of three boys. Of her personality stands out her enthusiasm and vitality, her ability to promote networking and her commitment to diversity and inclusion. In 2018 she received the “Women Leadership Award” from the Spanish Federation of Women Managers and Entrepreneurs.

With more than 40 years of experience as a management consultant first and CEO later in companies like PWC, EY, Tata Consulting Services and Getronics for Iberia and other European countries, Jose joined Altran Technologies in 2006 as CEO for Spain and Portugal. He was a member of the global Excom and mentor of the leaders of other geographies during different periods (US, Sweden, Italy,, Middle East).

When he joined Altran his main objective was to integrate in Spain 20 operating companies, create and develop a high performing management team and boost growth and profitability.

In 2019 when he retired, Atran in Spain was recognized as o leading company in R&D and engineering consulting,

with more than 4,000 engineers, two digits growth year over year since 2008, and best in class profitability.

Last but not least, Altran was awarded in 2012 with the National Award in human resource innovation, delivered by the Queen of Spain.

Jose Ramon is an effective communicator and pragmatic leader of highly educated professionals. From January 2019 he has joined several advisory boards, including non-profit organizations, and is mentoring several young CEO’s .

Jose Ramon holds a degree in Business Administration from the Complutense University of Madrid and has participated in several leadership and executive programs including the Harvard Negotiation Project and Disney Business Model at Disney University.

Based in Madrid, José Ramón is married and father of a boy and a girl. Of his personality stands out his passion for networking and entrepreneurial spirit, and his commitment to diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities.

Stefaan is the founder of the Global Curiosity Institute where he and his team are supporting professionals, teams and organisations to foster a mindset of curiosity.
 
He started his career in investment consulting in China. From there he moved to set up the executive education arm of a major business school in Shanghai, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), which he ran for 5 years. Subsequently, he moved to the corporate side and set up global learning teams and innovative corporate universities for Nokia (China/Finland), Agfa Healthcare (Belgium), Philips (the Netherlands), Flipkart (India), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia) and Cognizant (UK). His last role was that of Chief Learning Officer for Cognizant, where he overlooked the learning and development for over 300k associates across the globe. He has been globally recognized for his innovative approach to learning, people and technology.
 
Stefaan has a Master’s degree in Economics and in Chinese, together with postgraduate degrees in Marxist Economics from China, Cross-Cultural Management from France and an Executive MBA from Rutgers University. He is a certified ACS and NLP coach. A Belgian national, Stefaan has been married for 25 years to Jeltje Peletier: a successful psychotherapist, coach and yoga teacher. Together they have 4 children: Rik, Femke, Koen and Menko. He practices meditation daily, is a marathon runner and is currently pursuing a masters degree in philosophy.
 
To learn more about the institute click here: https://www.globalcuriosityinstitute.com/

For more than 25 years, Carlos held the positions of managing director and chief executive officer at diverse family enterprises, having the opportunity to meet all sorts of challenges and specific issues related to family businesses. He currently serves on the board of directors of some family-owned companies.

During 2009 and 2010, Carlos was president of AEI CONTRACT, an innovative group of economic interest consisting of 20 companies. They jointly participated in projects related to construction, interior design and decoration.

Along with other Asturian entrepreneurs, he prompted the creation of the Asturian Association of Family Enterprise, and he was a member of the first board of directors for a period of four years.

Carlos has studied engineering and has a degree in systems management. He has also studied sociology at the UNED and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from IEDE. He also participated in the leadership and management of International Trade course dictated by EUROFORUM El Escorial.

Carlos lives in Asturias, Spain. He is married and has two children. In his spare time, he enjoys his family, friends, traveling and playing sports, especially tennis.

Jose Suarez is the former CEO of Axialent, and currently serves as a member of the board and strategic partner.

With nearly 30 years of experience in management and general administration, José has worked in both the private sector and public administration. He spent the majority of his career in the corporate world. As a consultant, he focuses on strategy, management, and business development.

Until early 2011, José served as a councilor for the City Council of Oviedo, Principality of Asturias, Spain. In addition to overseeing the areas of culture, sports, and youth, he also served as president of the Sociedad Ovetense de Festejos, which is responsible for organizing various festivals in the city. Furthermore, he served as vice president of the Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias and the Campoamor Theater Lyrical Awards Foundation. Currently, he remains a member of the General Council of CajAstur/LiberBank, a leading bank in Asturias.

Before becoming a councilor for the City Council, José was the director of international business development for the Inmark Group and a member of the company’s board of directors, where he led projects in both Europe and Latin America. Previously, he served as the corporate director of Makeateam, a Spanish consulting firm dedicated to executive training that was acquired by the Inmark Group in 2005. Prior to that, José served as a director of Ernst & Young in Spain and Latin America, where he was in charge of overseeing strategic consulting, human resources, and change management areas in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.

José earned a bachelor’s degree in geography and history from the University of Oviedo and a Master’s in Business Administration from the IEDE, Institute for Executive Development. Furthermore, he attended courses on topics such as administration, marketing, service strategies, competitive leadership, and strategies and implementation at the London School of Economics, the Disney Institute, and the University of California-Berkeley, among other institutions.

In addition to his other activities, José has been a press contributor since 1993. He was also awarded the Grand Cross for Humanitarian Merit in Barcelona in 2010.

Although he currently resides in Asturias, Spain, José has also lived in Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. He is married, has two children, and enjoys reading and walking.